Thanks to lenglui for reminding me to conclude my blog =P; I just came back yesterday after having to spent a night at Beijing. I'm glad to say I'm fully recovered from jetlag! =D.
Anyway, this internship experience has been a very memorable one for me. I've never sat in a plane nor have I went to anywhere else other than Singapore - which by the way is a really nice place - and this internship opportunity with National Instruments gave me all that and more. It was beyond my expectations and it made me proud to see that we MMU students are selected among many other private and public universities in Malaysia! In fact, I was told by my supervisor, Tim that we're the first university that NI visited.
I have learnt (American spelling is "learned") many things while working at NI and also the way the Americans work. I've seen first hand how they work together to achieve a common goal which is to complete their project that was given to them. I've also seen the behaviours that made them really good at what they do. We may have a long journey ahead of us but I believe we Malaysians will be at the level where the Americans are. Malaysia boleh!
Throughout my stay in Austin, I've found Americans to be very friendly and courteous and the people I work with are always very willing to help you whenever you have problems. They're also very supportive in what you do and I found that to be very motivating. In addition, they're very honest people; I'm not sure about other places but in Austin, people abide by the rules!
Maybe you don't get courteous drivers (like in Austin) and not as developed as them but I take in pride in knowing that Malaysia is a special place like no other. Where can you find a country where three races live together and respect one another (with the exception of the politicians) and have the ability to speak languages other than English (most of us know 5 languages!)? Besides, who can beat the variety of foods that we have in Malaysia? You got Malay foods, Chinese foods and Indian foods all in one place; beats US hands down! Hahaha... I love Malaysia! Malaysia, tanahair ku!
PS: Since I've already finished my internship at Austin, I might not continue with blogging anymore in the future. Therefore this would be end of my blogging days...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
My Internship Presentation at NI (finally!)
After a technical problem that forced my presentation last week to be postponed to today, I finally managed to present my slides. It wasn't just me presenting, Hann Huei and Hon Mun also presented theirs as it was our last week here at NI.
It went well, aside from me speaking a little too fast (it was intimidating to have almost the whole mat salleh engineers which amounted to about 20 coming to the presentation). Since my projects don't have much interesting stuffs to talk about unlike the other intern who has demos, I had to make my presentation more livelier by adding and making my slides funny and entertaining.
I took some hints from Steve Jobs's presentations and I was successful in making the audience laugh which made me feel good because I sacrificed my weekend trip and lots of hours just to design the slides to make it look interesting. And then I have to rehearse and rehearse until I was natural. So when you finally presented your slides and entertained your audience, you'll feel great.
It was scary and I felt very nervous at first but hey, even Steve Jobs felt the same everytime!
How did yours went? Let me know.
It went well, aside from me speaking a little too fast (it was intimidating to have almost the whole mat salleh engineers which amounted to about 20 coming to the presentation). Since my projects don't have much interesting stuffs to talk about unlike the other intern who has demos, I had to make my presentation more livelier by adding and making my slides funny and entertaining.
I took some hints from Steve Jobs's presentations and I was successful in making the audience laugh which made me feel good because I sacrificed my weekend trip and lots of hours just to design the slides to make it look interesting. And then I have to rehearse and rehearse until I was natural. So when you finally presented your slides and entertained your audience, you'll feel great.
It was scary and I felt very nervous at first but hey, even Steve Jobs felt the same everytime!
How did yours went? Let me know.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Lovely Bike-friendly Buses
Picture courtesy of University of Texas
On my previous post, I mentioned about the fact that Austin is a bike-friendly city with loads of nice special lane for bikes; well, that's not all. :D
I love Austin's bus transport! Why? They this great idea of allowing (environment-conscious) cyclist to take their bike along when they ride the bus! Sounds cool? It's awesome!
The buses in Austin, CapMetro are equiped with a rack in front of the bus which allows two bikes to be loaded on it. Two sounds little but it's way better than nothing.
The first time I tried it when I took my bike for the triathlon myself, I was apprehensive because I can't imagine putting my bike in front of the bus, dangling (almost). Here's how it goes: When you stop the bus and let the driver know that you're using the rack, he/she (it's not rare to have female drivers) lowers the bus using some hydrolic system (it looks cool when you see it yourself) and then you place your bike on the rack and lock it. Simple? Yup. Scary? Pretty much for the first 20 minutes.
I was restless in the bus, especially when the bus stops because I was kept having ominous picture of my bike getting trampled under the bus. Thank goodness, that didn't happen. I guess the rack is sturdy enough to hold the bikes.
I wish our (LambatKL) RapidKL buses have this bike rack...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Presentation presentation presentation...
I've finished almost all of my loose ends of my projects so these few days I've been concentrating on my presentation which is going to be next week Wednesday. I'm a worried about this presentation because it not going to be like in MMU where you'll be presenting to your friends; my lovely audience here would be senior mat-salleh engineers!
Talk about being pressured. Besides that, last week a guy from USM gave his presentation before leaving for Penang so me being a MMU student, I have to do better than him to show that we MMU-ians are better than those public university students! :P
I'm not really good at presenting so all your best wishes are very welcomed! :D
Wish me the best!
PS: Do you guys have end-of-internship-presentations for your company too?
Talk about being pressured. Besides that, last week a guy from USM gave his presentation before leaving for Penang so me being a MMU student, I have to do better than him to show that we MMU-ians are better than those public university students! :P
I'm not really good at presenting so all your best wishes are very welcomed! :D
Wish me the best!
PS: Do you guys have end-of-internship-presentations for your company too?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
10 Things that I'm going to miss in Austin
1. Clothes Dryer
They are so convenient, just dumped your washed clothes inside and wait for about 40 minutes and you're done! Nicely dried and soft... No need to hang your clothes outside and wait a day... Truly a wonderful thing to have.
2. AC (Air conditioning unit)
I'm going to miss my house in Austin and especially the always-on-AC! You come back from a hot day and cool yourself in the constant-temperature house... No more waking up sweating in the middle of the night...
3. Microwave Oven
This is one super convenient home appliance that I am most probably going to get one when I go back to Malaysia. You can do so much with this; you can make lunch, snacks, heat up your leftover foods... You guys might have this already but I don't, at least not yet. =P
4. High-speed Internet
Seeing your download speeds up to 300 kBps is really cool and so is watching YouTube without any waiting time! Why can't TM be like this?
5. Walking along the small forest to work
Nothing beats having a refreshing and cooling walk along the small forest behind my house to my workplace. And when you come back from work during the summer, the forest just shades away the heat. Everytime I walk to work, I'll walk slowly just to enjoy the nice breeze along the way. I wish my walk from Cyberia to campus and back be this euphoric.
6. Special bike-only lane
This is not necessary but in tight narrow roads, you'll be glad if you have a special lane for your bike more so whenever a big truck is coming from behind you.
7. Friendly people
People in Austin are known for their friendliness and courtesy whereby they would say hi to you or smile (girls smile back when you smile at them =D). People at the counters would greet you when you come in and so on. Even the drivers are friendly to cyclist; they give way to us, not like in Malaysia.
8. Weather
Yea, it was hot during the summer but it's just like in Malaysia but it's not humid. You don't sweat like a leaking pipe when you walk under the sun; great for me since I can even sweat when I sit. Nowadays, the weather is getting colder which is something between Genting Highlands and KL; not too hot, not too cold.
9. Lovely parks
You probably don't know that Austin is voted 3rd best places in the US for triathlete to train in. Mostly it's due to the fact that there are so many parks around and they're very well kept. Hiking trails are aplenty and the many pedestrian walks everywhere! Did I mention about the Barton Springs Pool?
10. National Instruments
You probably wouldn't be surprise with this; this company is THE place to be working at! Great and friendly and helpful people, environment-conscious company, company that helps you success in your career by enabling you to take up courses in the company, excellent working facilities (breakroom with microwave ovens and fridge, water coolers at every floor, etc). I really love working here, enough said.
They are so convenient, just dumped your washed clothes inside and wait for about 40 minutes and you're done! Nicely dried and soft... No need to hang your clothes outside and wait a day... Truly a wonderful thing to have.
2. AC (Air conditioning unit)
I'm going to miss my house in Austin and especially the always-on-AC! You come back from a hot day and cool yourself in the constant-temperature house... No more waking up sweating in the middle of the night...
3. Microwave Oven
This is one super convenient home appliance that I am most probably going to get one when I go back to Malaysia. You can do so much with this; you can make lunch, snacks, heat up your leftover foods... You guys might have this already but I don't, at least not yet. =P
4. High-speed Internet
Seeing your download speeds up to 300 kBps is really cool and so is watching YouTube without any waiting time! Why can't TM be like this?
5. Walking along the small forest to work
Nothing beats having a refreshing and cooling walk along the small forest behind my house to my workplace. And when you come back from work during the summer, the forest just shades away the heat. Everytime I walk to work, I'll walk slowly just to enjoy the nice breeze along the way. I wish my walk from Cyberia to campus and back be this euphoric.
6. Special bike-only lane
This is not necessary but in tight narrow roads, you'll be glad if you have a special lane for your bike more so whenever a big truck is coming from behind you.
7. Friendly people
People in Austin are known for their friendliness and courtesy whereby they would say hi to you or smile (girls smile back when you smile at them =D). People at the counters would greet you when you come in and so on. Even the drivers are friendly to cyclist; they give way to us, not like in Malaysia.
8. Weather
Yea, it was hot during the summer but it's just like in Malaysia but it's not humid. You don't sweat like a leaking pipe when you walk under the sun; great for me since I can even sweat when I sit. Nowadays, the weather is getting colder which is something between Genting Highlands and KL; not too hot, not too cold.
9. Lovely parks
You probably don't know that Austin is voted 3rd best places in the US for triathlete to train in. Mostly it's due to the fact that there are so many parks around and they're very well kept. Hiking trails are aplenty and the many pedestrian walks everywhere! Did I mention about the Barton Springs Pool?
10. National Instruments
You probably wouldn't be surprise with this; this company is THE place to be working at! Great and friendly and helpful people, environment-conscious company, company that helps you success in your career by enabling you to take up courses in the company, excellent working facilities (breakroom with microwave ovens and fridge, water coolers at every floor, etc). I really love working here, enough said.
UPDATE: I shamefully forgot to mention that in our breakrooms, there's a coffee machine that you can brew your own coffee (coffee powder is provided FREE) and a variety of tea flavors (sachets) that you can take and make tea yourself! All this is provided FREE! =P By the way, I like the Green Tea flavor... :D
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